The Red Pony (1949) (Academy Film Archive)

Lewis Milestone: The Red Pony (US 1949).

Lewis Milestone: The Red Pony (US 1949). L to R: Shepperd Strudwick (Tom Tiflin), Myrna Loy (Alice Tiflin), in front the boy Gerald Perreau credited as Peter Miles (Tom Tiflin), behind him Robert Mitchum (Billy Buck), and Louis Calhern (Grandfather).

Minuzzolo / Tomin punainen poni / Den röda ponnyn.

    US © 1949 Chas. K. Feldman Group Productions and Lewis Milestone Productions, Inc.  Prod.: Lewis Milestone per Republic Pictures.

    Director: Lewis Milestone. Sog.: from the short novel of the same name (1933) by John Steinbeck. Scen.: John Steinbeck. F.: Tony Gaudio – colour. M.: Harry Keller. Scgf.: Victor Greene. Mus.: Aaron Copland. Int.: Myrna Loy (Alice Tiflin), Robert Mitchum (Billy Buck), Louis Calhern (the grandfather), Shepperd Strudwick (Fred Tiflin), Peter Miles (Tom), Margaret Hamilton (the teacher), Melinda Byron (Jinx Ingals), Jackie Jackson (Jackie), Beau Bridges (Beau).

    89 min

    "Marche militaire" (1818) by Franz Schubert, played on the piano by Myrna Loy. n.c.

    "Shall We Gather at the River?" (1864) by Robert Lowry, played on the piano by Myrna Loy. n.c.

    I believe I also heard "Für Elise" (1810) by Ludwig van Beethoven. n.c.

    Finnish premiere: 21 Oct 1949.

    DCP from Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

    By courtesy of Paramount Pictures and Park Circus.

    Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna 2025: Lewis Milestone: of Wars and Men.

    Viewed with e-subtitles in Italian by SubTi Londra at Cinema Jolly, 25 June 2025.    

Ehsan Khoshbakht (Bologna 2025): "This Technicolor gem, based on John Steinbeck’s novella, marks the author’s first adaptation of his own work for the screen—an idea he and director Lewis Milestone had pursued since the success of Of Mice and Men. Ironically, Milestone’s first colour film was produced by Republic Pictures, one of Hollywood’s less affluent studios, that sought to enhance its reputation by elevating the quality of its productions. (During the same six-month period, the studio also released Frank Borzage’s Moonrise and Orson Welles’s Macbeth)."

"In this pre-Shane tale of a laconic farmhand (Robert Mitchum) idolised by young Tom (Peter Miles), the son of the family he works for, the first half of the film bathes the screen in an idyllic image of pastoral utopia – only to shatter it in the second half with a subtle, yet poignant exploration of life’s harsher realities. While the film’s Americana has shades of Henry King, it is unmistakably Milestone’s work, characterised by its distinctive visual style and the recurring theme of unattainable dreams."

"The lyrical qualities are familiar, but the tenderness of familial relationships and the unique child’s point of view represented new territory for Milestone. Even the most mundane scenes, like a breakfast ending in understated family tensions, are handled with remarkable dramatic precision. The narrative delves into themes of regret (the father’s longing to return to the city), obsolescence (the grandfather’s repetitive tall tales), and loss (Tom’s pony falling ill), driving the story into darker terrain where green pastures turn muddy and bitter."

"Cinematographer Tony Gaudio’s work enriches this tonal shift, with oil-lamp red-browns in soothing hues and some underlit, dark backgrounds to spotlight the actors like figures in Vermeer paintings. Aaron Copland’s music underscores the film’s lyricism."

"Though Milestone went on to make other fine films (Halls of Montezuma, 1951, and the underrated Kangaroo, 1952), The Red Pony remains his last great and fully convincing work." Ehsan Khoshbakht (Bologna 2025)

AA: Lewis Milestone had directed the first John Steinbeck film adaptation, Of Mice and Men, and now he directed the first movie with John Steinbeck himself as the screenwriter.

A boy in charge of an animal is always a rewarding subject for a growing-up story, and this is also the case in The Red Pony. There are challenges and obstacles, moments of success and fulfillment but also failure and disappointment. The ultimate experience is death, and transcending even that, birth. A resume of the cycle of life.

One of the greatest studies of such a theme is William A. Wellman's Good-bye, My Lady, about an orphan boy and his dog.

Tom Tiflin (Peter Miles) is not an orphan. He lives in safe family circumstances, but his father Fred (Shepperd Strudwick), a former schoolteacher, feels like a stranger on his own ranch. He has not made life easy for others to accept him, nor have the others for him to feel welcome.

With father often away and getting estranged from his own son, the ranch hand Billy Buck (Robert Mitchum) is about to turn into the most important grown-up man in Tom's life. And of course Billy is the expert about ranch life and animal behaviour.

Robert Mitchum is at ease with farm life and horses in the same way as in The Lusty Men. Something in his strut makes me think that Tom of Finland might have liked him.

In a film festival, movies enter into dialogue across retrospectives, and here I am reminded of Luigi Comencini's masterpiece The Window to Luna Park. Billy gets to know Tom better than his own father Fred, but this insight makes Fred decide to change his life in the finale.

I like Of Mice and Men, but in the beginning of The Red Pony I felt like in The North Star a false note. When war breaks out, The North Star turns serious and compelling, but unfortunately in The Red Pony I felt an embarrassment throughout.

The Technicolor on this DCP is miraculous and immaculate. I would love to learn how the dreamlike hyper-perfection was achieved. The typical Technicolor experience is (consciously) soft and blurry like an oil painting or watercolour. The three strips never completely match. But this copy is hyper-correct.